Which Aria Is It Anyway?
Chapter 3.
Wren had kept his promise, and been back the following night for another outing. The word successful probably wouldn't be the right word to describe their arrangement, but they were now going on their fifth night of sneaking Aria out of her room.
She could honestly say that she now knew what the Wren 'fuss' was about; he was quite near the kindest individual she'd ever had the pleasure to get to know. The best part was that he wasn't fawning over her with the fear that she might break if he didn't, and she appreciated that. She wasn't some porcelain doll who'd break if you dropped her. She wasn't even sure that she needed to be there, but for now, until she'd spoken to her friends, she was there.
Aria trusted Wren as much as one could trust a person within less than a week, and he was the only person at Radley who wanted to have an actual conversation with her. He didn't appear to be hiding anything, and whenever she asked him a question he'd answer to the best of his abilities.
Dr. Sullivan was a whole other case. The person Aria had once been able to rely on, and the first that she and her friends had told about A, and now that same person was distant and weird. If Aria didn't know any better she'd say that Dr. Sullivan was trying to drug her, but maybe she was just too hung up on the A situation to see the situation clearly?
Maybe when she saw her friends again she'd have some closure, but so far Wren hadn't been able to convince them to come see her. He'd promised to keep trying every day until they did, and she really appreciated that. It was nice to finally feel like she had an ally within the walls of Radley.
She had gotten to know Wren rather well on their small outings to the common room, and as he led her in there on the fifth night it felt like the dynamic had changed. He wasn't just an ally anymore; he was also her friend, and although she still didn't want to be at Radley it seemed almost bearable now.
She'd had enough of sitting by one of the tables every night, talking and moping. Tonight she wanted to do something different. She didn't want to mope, she wanted to smile and laugh, and therefore she raced over to the shelves with games when they stepped into the room.
It was an odd selection; mostly card games, but also a few board games that seemed to be mostly for children for some reason, except maybe for Monopoly which Aria didn't understand why it was there. People got really worked up over Monopoly, and her own brother literally gave her the silence treatment for an entire month after a game of Monopoly, and therefore Radley didn't seem like a fitting place to have such a game... Although, who was she to decide that?
"Aw, look Wren; they have Uno." Aria gushed as she picked up the red and black colored deck of cards, and turned around to show them to Wren. "I am the Uno King!" She added triumphantly.
Wren chuckled with a humourful glint in his eyes. "You do realise that Uno is basically a game of chance."
"Said not the King!" Aria teased, and stuck out her tongue at him. She went over to the nearest table and sat down. Wren remained standing. "What? Are you afraid I'm gonna beat you?"
"There is no skill in that game whatsoever!" Wren continued to object to the game, but eventually sat down at the table across from Aria. "Nobody can say that they're good at that game. They're merely lucky."
Aria smirked at him. "Then how do you explain that I always win?"
"Like I said; luck. Either that or you've cheated." Wren was the one to smirk that time, and Aria pretended to be offended by his words.
"Hey! I never cheat!" Aria said to which Wren raised his eyebrow, and shot her a challenging look. "It is not cheating to let people know beforehand that you have a serious medical condition. That they take pity on me because of that is their prerogative."
Wren eyed her suspiciously as she fluttered her eyes innocently, and just to be on the safe side he grabbed the deck of cards from her, volunteering himself to shuffle the cards which had pretty much been her goal. She couldn't shuffle cards to save her life.
"So what is this 'serious medical condition' you have?" Wren quizzed as he began shuffling the cards, and Aria watched for the briefest second in awe, but then she met his eyes with a secretive smile playing across her lips.
"I'm color deaf." She revealed, or rather fibbed quite obviously, but that was also the point.
Wren dealt the cards; seven each. Aria grabbed her cards, and peeked to see what she'd gotten. They were nothing out of the ordinary, and it was fair to say that they were a jumbled mess of colors, but she'd won with worse cards due to her color deafness.
"I don't believe that's an actually condition." Wren said, and Aria discarded her first card; a green 7. He put down two of the same number in different colours.
"Isn't it, though?" Aria challenged with a playful smile, and he simply shook his head as a reply. "Well, since you're unaware of the existence of my very serious condition of color deafness I'd say you have a lot of doctoring yet to do until you're fully educated. My color deafness is very serious."
He merely chuckled at that statement, and for the next half an hour they sat and played Uno together in silence. Despite having the worst cards ever, Aria managed to win the first game without, as Wren would call it, 'cheating'. Wren gathered the cards, and shuffled them again, and then dealt them out. They played until they lost count of how many games they each had won and lost.
Nothing needed to be said, they just sat together in silence with the cards being the only activity. It was nice. It really was, but as usual Aria's mind was racing with everything that was going on at the moment.
Wren was wonderful. He was so nice, and he had done wonders for her sanity, especially with the way everyone else was treating her. He was a great friend to her, and he was good company as well, but he couldn't give her what her friends could; answers.
Sure, he'd given her answers to a certain extent, but the truth of matter was that her friends knew more about what was going on in Rosewood than anyone else, and that's what she needed. If they'd been the ones to raise a red flag about her mental health, as a couple of sources had told her, then she wanted to hear it from them, and then she could believe it. She wanted to hear what happened to A from them, and then she could believe. It was what she needed.
The final card was laid in the last game of Uno, and they packed the cards together in silence, and then Aria walked back to the shelf with them, putting them in their rightful place. She turned around to face Wren, and by then she had tears in her eyes, and it surprised him how fast there was a turn of events.
He rushed over to her, and enveloped her in a comforting hug. "What's wrong, Aria?" He asked as they pulled apart, and the sympathetic look she hadn't seen on him in days was back.
"I just don't get why my friends refuse to come visit me when they continue to visit Alison every day." She poured out her heart to him, and he pulled her in for another hug as he felt that an action like that was better than words at the moment. "What can I possibly have done to them since they don't wanna see me? How can they refuse like that? I mean, you've expressed how badly I want to see them when you've spoken to them, haven't you?"
She gazed into his eyes with tears in her own. They were wider than usual, and filled with sadness. It was like looking into Bambi's eyes after he'd lost his mother, and it devastated Wren to see her like that.
"Yes, and I will continue to do so until I wear them out." Wren confirmed, and Aria gave him an appreciative squeeze as a thank you. He caught himself taking a sniff of her hair, but he brushed it off by telling himself that it had to be because it was right there under his nose.
Eventually they departed like the other nights after he'd walked her back to her room, and they'd said their goodbyes with the promise that they'd meet up again tomorrow, and then she went to bed as he closed the door behind her.
Which Aria Is It Anyway?
She was at the cemetery by the grave that she'd thought belonged to her former best friend for over a year, and now as she stood there she knew that everyone else in Rosewood were wondering who the girl in the grave was, but she knew. She hadn't killed her. She didn't know who had, but she knew who the girl was.
Another poor soul who knew too much, exactly as when Hanna had been run over with a car. The intention behind it had been the same. She hadn't done that either, but she felt the strangest sensation like she wished she had. They were all eager and excited to be reunited with their former Queen Bee; the root of all things evil in their small town.
They had remained loyal to her, even when they thought she was dead, and for that they deserved the same as her. She'd destroy them as she'd also destroy their leader. She'd push anyone aside who'd get in her way, and she had. That's why Mona was now on the torture list.
She had a shovel in her hand, the same shovel who'd struck the girl in the grave. She'd known exactly where to find it, and she'd brought it with her to the cemetery, and she'd bring it with her onwards. It seemed only fitting that the same shovel would be used tonight.
They were anticipating her arrival elsewhere. She had to move on from the cemetery, and proceed to where she knew they would be. They'd planned a trap for her, but it would be their demise; all of them together in the same place, just like she wanted.
"Rest in peace, Sara!" She spoke, but her voice sounded deeply possessed and almost demonic.
She walked away from the grave and towards her next destination, dragging the shovel behind her until the familiar house came into sight. She held up the shovel in one hand, and prepared herself for the showdown.
She stepped into the yard, and she saw the fearful looks in their eyes when they spotted exactly who she was. They were frightened, but she thrived on that. Their fear was delicious.
"Aria? No, it can't be you." The weakest link whimpered behind her friends with pathetically frightened eyes. It was great.
The Queen Bee stared at her friend in the black hoodie intensely. The normally beautiful, lively eyes that she'd looked into quite often had been substituted with empty, hollow pools of evil. This wasn't her friend.
"Aria, what the hell are you doing?" The book clever girl exclaimed, ducking out of the way as the black hoodie swung the shovel at her in an attempt to knock her out.
The former hefty shoplifter, and the weakest link held onto each other as they fearfully backed away, scared for their lives. The Queen Bee decided to gain control of the situation.
"Guys," She shouted with rare authority, looking at her friends with fierce determination, "Open your eyes! It may look like her, but this isn't Aria!"
The hoodie raised the shovel, and aimed for the book clever girl who was already lying down, and therefore the easiest target, but before she had the time to execute the action she felt a severe sting of pain in the back of her head, and she fell down with her head first. She was unconscious.
"Did you kill her?"
"Aria?"
"Aria?"
"ARIA?"
Her eyes fluttered opened, and the first thing she saw was a mane of blonde hair, and a pair of concerned blue eyes. It had to be a dream. She'd been wishing and hoping for so long, and now that it had finally happened it seemed like the most wonderful dream she'd ever had, although she had a feeling that she'd just woken up from a nightmare.
She was drenched in sweat, her heart was practically up in her throat, and she felt very frightened. She tried to recall her dream, and figure out what had terrified her that much, but it had completely vanished from her brain. She couldn't find the smallest fraction from the dream, not even a tiny word or clue. She was blank.
She fixated her eyes on the visitor, and decided to let the suspicion of a nightmare slide. This wasn't the time for that when she'd finally gotten her wish. Wren had followed through, and she wasn't surprised by who had given in to his attempts.
"Hanna!" She breathed out excitedly to acknowledge her friend's presence. Her shoe fanatic friend merely smiled as a reply, and found a spot on the bed to sit down on as Aria sat up to allow more room. "I almost thought you'd never come."
"We had decided not to, but Wren kept pushing. Spencer told me not to come, but I had to see you." Hanna began to explain her reason's for coming, and as she spoke Aria could see a familiar glint of sympathy in the blonde's eyes. She'd had about enough of sympathy, but it didn't bother her as much now that she'd finally seen one of her friends again. "It wasn't my idea to not visit you. Spencer insisted pretty strongly, using all kinds of fancy words to convince us that it was the right thing to do."
"But that doesn't make any sense, unless..." Aria voiced her confusion, and noticed her friend looking away with guilt as she spoke, and then it seemed clear to her. "... you're blaming me for something? Maybe Ezra really was A, and he was just lying to me when he said he was writing a book. You think it's my fault, don't you? You blame me for his torment."
"Ezra wasn't A!" Hanna exclaimed in an attempt to stop Aria's beginning overflow of conspiracy theories, and after that outburst Aria glared at her with more confusion than before.
"If Ezra wasn't A, then what happened to him?" Aria quizzed, desperation streaming through her voice. She wanted the pieces to fit together already.
"He..." ... took a bullet for you, and is now clinging to his life in a deep coma... "... went away like you requested."
The excuse was weak, Hanna knew that, but her smaller friend seemed to digest the words, and slowly came to an acceptance of them. Hanna had to be telling the truth; Ezra wasn't A, and he'd moved away like Aria had wanted him to.
The Ezra part of the equation added up, but there were still a lot of things that weren't making sense, like; "That just doesn't explain why you guys haven't visited me. If Ezra isn't the reason, what is?"
Hanna had been in a room at Radley that reminded a lot like the one Aria was in a countless amount of times, and the rooms looked the same so she knew the crooks if it, even the dust bunnies, but it had suddenly become very interesting. She looked anywhere else than in Aria's direction to avoid the petite girl's burning gaze upon her. Hanna had always been the worst at hiding things.
When she had glanced through the room a couple of times, Aria grew impatient with her, and forced the blonde girl's attention back to the conversation by asking a very direct and demanding question; "Hanna, who's A?"
Hanna met her friend's hazel eyes, and they were so pleading, innocent, and honest that she just couldn't lie to them. "You were, Aria. You were the new A, you were the one who stole the game from Mona." Hanna revealed, and watched as her tiny friend's heart shattered into a million pieces.
No! It just couldn't be true! No, no, no, no, no... NO! She'd know if she'd been A, she'd have remembered the detail of torturing her friends, but she hadn't even the smallest recollection of doing anything quite like that. She'd remember if she'd stolen the game from Mona, and tormented her friends rather fiercely. It couldn't be her, it simply couldn't.
"No, because we made a trap to catch A, and we..." Aria's head was pounding, and she was struggling to construct a proper sentence to make sense of the situation.
Hanna nodded her head, sympathy in her eyes. "Yes, and we caught you, Aria."
"I... I would... I mean, I..." The same struggle as before, and still no coherent sentence was made.
"Aria, what exactly do you remember?" Hanna asked, knowing that she was in that very second breaking a lot of rules. "Let's start with the Ezra thing?"
"Spencer was insisting that he was A, but I found out that he was actually writing a book about Ali, and that he knew who she was, and who I was when we met. Our entire relationship was a lie. I felt so angry, and so betrayed that I..." It stressed Aria to have to recall those memories since she technically didn't, only small fractions, bits, and pieces that she'd connected to try to make sense of what had happened. "... trashed his apartment."
Hanna seemed surprised. "You actually remember that?"
Aria shook her head, deciding to be honest with her friend. "No. I just remember going to his apartment, and I saw these notes for his book that contained practically every secret that I had ever told him. This hurt, anger, and betrayal crept up in me, and I almost felt that it was trying to gain control over my body, and the next thing I knew I was sitting on the floor in his apartment, and it was completely trashed. I just connected the dots, and assumed that I had done it, and then you, Spencer, and Emily came."
"What about the night Alison told us the truth about what happened to her?" Hanna continued to question her friend, ignoring the fact that it was quite clearly tearing on Aria. She needed to know if what she'd been told about her condition was true.
"We went to see her, and she told us about that night, and how she was buried alive. She told us Mona convinced her to fake her own death, and she was crying a lot." Aria said, trying her best to remember the detail, but they, too, were somewhat of a blur. "Then I don't know, and we were back in Rosewood."
Hanna could tell that Aria was being sincere, and she knew what she'd been explained had been true, not that she had doubted it. She had wanted to see for herself, and she also didn't agree with the notion that Aria should be kept isolated, and not be fed any answers. She did agree that they should try their best not to overwhelm her, but anyone in her state deserved to know how they had gotten there. She wasn't the best for the option, but until she managed to convince her friends to get on board with her conviction, she was the only option.
"So you don't remember what happened on the roof?" And to Ezra? Well, of course she didn't. Although Aria felt betrayed by Ezra, Hanna knew that her tiny friend would be losing it if she knew that her former love's life was hanging in a delicate balance.
"What roof?"
Okay, so obviously she didn't. "Nevermind." Hanna then said, and returned to questioning her friend. "What about the day we caught A?"
"We were talking about how we could put an end to things with A so it would be safe for Alison to be back in Rosewood, and we decided that luring A by having all five us together in the same place would be the chance at that, but I don't remember the exact plan." Aria revealed, and by then she had tears in her eyes. She had refused to fully believe that something could have been wrong until now, but as she was questioned she'd come to realize that no 'healthy' person would be missing such huge chunks of their memories. "The next thing I know, I'm here."
"Aria..." Hanna began, and never in her life had she heard her own voice sound that serious. She met her tiny friend's eyes with as much sincerity, and sympathy as she could muster – more than Aria cared for. "... you are A."
Aria allowed herself to break down, and cried harder than she remembered to ever have done in her entire life. She cried so much that her chest started to hurt, and her eyes grew tired. Hanna wouldn't lie to her. She couldn't, and that's when Aria knew that it was the truth; she was A!
She was the person who'd stolen the game from Mona. She was the person Alison had been scared of, and who had prevented her from being able to return home. She was the person who had tormented her friends fiercely, and even herself. She couldn't remember anything, but she knew from her friends what A had done to them – or rather; what she had done. She didn't know why she had no recollection of stealing the game from Mona and torturing her friends, but there was one thing that she did know; she was a monster. No wonder her friends wanted nothing to do with her!
Aria had lost track of how long she had been crying, and she had forgotten about her friend's presence until she was reminded by it when Hanna reached out to give Aria's hand a comforting squeeze. "Don't touch me!" Aria yanked her hand away from Hanna's touch. "I'm a monster!"
"No, you're not." Hanna tried to comfort her best friend, but Aria didn't think she deserved to be consoled. Hanna had always been too caring. "The real Aria could never hurt anyone!"
"But I have!" Aria argued, getting overwhelmed like Hanna knew she wasn't supposed to. "I've done unspeakable things to my best friends, to myself even. I'm awful. I don't blame Spencer and Emily for not coming. I wouldn't want to see me either. I'm a mon..."
"No, you're not, Aria. It's not your fault." Hanna interrupted Aria's rant before the petite girl got too worked up, trying once again to place a comforting hand on her friend's, but Aria removed her hand again, choosing to sit on it so Hanna wouldn't get the chance again.
"Of course it is, what are you talking about?" Aria cried, refusing any words of comfort. She didn't remember anything she'd done as A, but the moment Hanna revealed her to be A, she understood that everything she knew that A had done was actually her. How could Hanna sit there and be understanding with everything Aria had done? How could she say it wasn't her fault?
"If you really were a monster, do you think we'd have gone to your parents, and not the police?" Hanna challenged with rare words of wisdom. She was determined to calm Aria down, and make her understand the truth of the situation. "If your actions as A were premeditated..." She received an odd stare from Aria. "... I know; big word... But if they were, do you really think we would have hesitated about going to the cops, knowing what's been done to us?"
Aria opened her mouth to speak, but closed it immediately afterwards at a loss for words. She contemplated what to say. There was something about Hanna's words that triggered something in her mind. She made a good point, but at the same time it confused Aria.
Mona had been Hanna's best friend, and when she was revealed as the original A, Hanna had no trouble cutting her off when it became quite clear that the actions had been premeditated, just to use Hanna's earlier words. If Aria had been aware of her actions, and had meant to do them, Hanna wouldn't be sitting in her room at Radley, looking at her so caringly. It just still didn't make sense.
Hanna had informed Aria that she was A, but when she spoke about it there was an insinuation that it wasn't her actions. It was like Aria and A were two completely different people, but how could that be when she'd just been informed that she was A? It really puzzled her.
She didn't know what to say, but she had to try to voice her confusion. "No, but I..."
"You know what A has done, but you have no memory of actually doing those things, do you?" Hanna questioned, interrupting Aria once again. Aria shook her head as a reply. "There's a reason for that, you know!"
Hanna reached out, and yanked Aria's hands free from under her butt, and managed to finally give her friend's hand a reassuring squeeze as Aria was too stunned to think about rejecting the action.
Unaware of the physical contact between them, she spoke; "I just don't understand?"
"The reason for it is why you're here. It's confusing to me even, but the reason why you don't remember is because there are two Arias inside your head." Hanna tried her best to explain the situation, but knew she had to change tactic when she earned another confused look from her friend. "I don't remember the correct term 'cos I'm not Spencer with the smarts and all that, but you have this multiple personality disorder thingy. The Psychiatry For Dummies explanation would probably be that you have the real Aria, but beneath the surface there is this evil Aria that sometimes takes control over your body and does all these horrible things, and when the real Aria, the good Aria, gets the control back she doesn't remember anything that the evil Aria has done."
It made sense in a way, but Aria still had a lot of questions. "But why would the other me want to hurt you guys? I mean, if I'm the real Aria I would be aware if I had even the slightest resentment for my friends?"
"Well, according to Dr. Sullivan the A part of you is haboring some of your suppressed memories, some traumatic experiences that the real Aria doesn't want to remember, but that fuels the other Aria's wish for revenge." Hanna explained, "The other Aria is obviously very dangerous, and that's why you're here, Aria. With the right help and medication, the real Aria can be the only Aria. But it's important that we don't overwhelm you 'cos then your mind is weak, and the other Aria can easily take over then!"
It finally clicked. "That's why you guys wouldn't visit me. You were trying to help me, not hurt me!" Hanna nodded to confirm this, and it gave Aria the slightest jolt of happiness, and then the fear kicked in. "But what if I'm the other Aria, and the real Aria is A?"
Hanna chuckled softly at this. It was quite clear that Aria hadn't been briefed on the situation as much as they had. "The other personality usually doesn't get as much play time as the real one, sweetie."
"So I'm not really A? I just have an unwanted visitor inside me?" Aria questioned, feeling herself tear up with joy at the revelation. She had answers now. She legitimately needed to be at Radley. She had a mental illness that made her A, but not A. It was confusing, devastating, and relieving all at the same time.
Hanna chuckled again. "That's one way to put it, I guess."
"And none of you hate me?" It was the one question Aria wanted answered the most. She had broken her own heart with the assumption, and she really needed to hear it be denied by one of her friends.
Hanna smiled sympathetically at her tiny friend. "We could never hate you. The real you, that is. The other you needs an eviction notice, a-sap!"
Aria giggled, and Hanna joined in. It felt nice to laugh with one of her friends again. She had missed that. Hanna had gone against her other friends' wishes, and went to visit Aria, and had given the Radley patient the answers she had so desperately wanted. She told her things that she wasn't supposed to, but she felt like Aria deserved to know. Being at Radley, and not knowing why had to suck.
Hanna spent the rest of the visiting hours with Aria in her room, telling her light, funny stories to get her mind off of the seriousness of the situation for a couple of hours. Aria had plenty of time to worry about that later, but for now she was distracted by stories from the real world...
Which Aria Is It Anyway?
Hanna had left hours ago, and since then the news of Aria's condition had had the time to be digested properly. It quickly became quite clear that battling with her thoughts regarding the issue by herself hadn't been her best option, and she was having a panic attack of sorts. An obsessive need to run away, if you will.
When Hanna had been here, they hadn't discussed what kind of memories or traumatic experiences she might have been suppressing, but she gathered that it had something to do with Alison. It was quite obvious, really, considering A's excessive attempt to destroy Alison and her closest friends.
What worried her was, what if A was too strong for her? Hanna had said that with therapy and the right medication, Aria would be the only occupant of her own body, but what if she'd never be rid of A? What if the other person inside her couldn't be driven away? Then she'd continue to hurt her friends without any control.
That couldn't happen! She didn't want to hurt her friends. She had to do everything in her power to make sure that didn't happen. She had to get as far away from her friends as possible, preferably Antarctica with no possible way of returning to resume A's inhuman agenda.
She had never in her life questioned her own strength, her ability to endure hardships, but she felt defeated beforehand. She was the weaker soul. How else would A have been able to take control over her body so easily, and use it as an instrument to torture her friends? She couldn't fight this. She wasn't strong enough.
She had to leave now! She had to leave before A had the chance to take over, and get a new chance to hurt her friends again. The situation was especially dire since she'd been informed that Alison was also patient at Radley, and therefore a very easy target. Information like that would have to make A that much eager to resurface, and finish what she had started.
Aria couldn't let that happen. She didn't care what grudge A held against Alison, and it didn't matter what traumatic memories she'd suppressed, she didn't want to hurt her friends anymore. Enough was enough, but how the hell did one escape Radley? How had Mona done it? How had Spencer?
In that moment the door to her room opened, and in stepped Wren as promised. "Hello Aria!" He greeted her with a smile, and then it clicked. He was her way out! She somehow had to convince him to let her escape.
She walked through the room until she stood right in front of him, meeting his eyes with fierce determination. "Wren, I have to get out of here." She exclaimed, sounding much more upset than she'd initially planned.
"Aria, what's going on?" He asked sympathetically, but she could tell that her outburst had frightened him a little. "You seem distressed!?"
"Look, I just... I can't be in here anymore. I have to... I have... I just..." She tried her best to be making sense, but knew that she was failing miserably, becoming more and more upset by the minute. "Can't you... Can't you just... I have to..."
He gave her an analysing look which confused her greatly, and then it turned into one of understanding. "Aria, are you having an episode?"
An episode? What did he mean by episode? He was staring at her knowingly as if he knew exactly what was going on. Like he knew what was troubling her deep down, but how could he? Unless... Unless he knew precisely what her mental condition was, and that he by episode meant that the other her was fighting it's way to the surface.
She could just be over-imagining things, but she had managed to convince herself. "You lied to me!" She shouted, and her eyes were piercing with anger.
Wren seemed startled by the accusation. "What do you mean?"
"You knew exactly what was wrong with me, but you withheld it!" Her voice became louder and louder with every word as the anger she felt increased. Something was bubbling beneath the surface, prickling to get through, but she tried to suffocate the feeling by focussing on Wren. "I trusted you. I confided in you, and you lied to me."
"Aria, you're clearly having one of your episodes. If you just try to..." Wren was trying his best to calm her down, but she interrupted his little speech.
"I'm upset, Wren!" She screamed in his face. She was being irrationally upset, but it was becoming harder and harder to control. "It's possible for a person to be upset without it being an 'episode'. I don't appreciate being lied to, especially by someone I thought I could trust!"
An illogical parallel was made in her head. She trusted Wren, and he betrayed her trust. He lied to her, and Ezra had done the same. She had loved Ezra with all of her heart, trusting him with not just that, but with every one of her secrets. He betrayed her trust, and he had lied from the very moment that they met. He had pretended not to know who she was or who Alison was, but he knew who they both were. He knew Alison. He had a relationship with Alison. He came to Rosewood for Alison. Alison!
Her eyes flickered, and was replaced by darkness, by empty, hollow pools of evil identical to the ones from the night that they defeated her. They didn't belong to the real Aria, they belonged to A.
She was at Radley, and so was Alison DiLaurentis. The game had just become too easy to finish! The only thing standing in her way was the nice doctor man. He was much bigger than her, but she'd overcome obstacles particularly worse than him to carry her plans into the world.
Wren sensed the change in the room. Aria had been upset and loud before, and now there was an omening silence in the room, and she was staring straight into his eyes with a gleam so unfamiliar. He wasn't entirely sure what it meant...
"Aria?"
She smirked evilly at him. "Aria isn't here anymore!" Her voice was barely above a whisper, but it sounded so possessed, demonic even. Her head just needed to spin all the way around on her neck, and it would have been reminiscent of the Exorcist.
"Aria, please. This isn't you!" He tried to reason with her, but he was too late with the attempt. She smirked at him again for being foolish enough to even try.
He was still standing in her way, and she had to get past him. She grabbed the nearest item which was the comfortable chair across from the bed, and she threw it forcibly at him, but she missed by a millimeter. She proceeded to grab everything in the room that she had the capacity to lift, and then throw it after him. She didn't have the best aim, and missed with every item.
Lastly, she grabbed the lamb that was placed on the desk in the far corner of the room, intending to knock him over the head with him which would hopefully result in him falling unconscious.
With another evil, satisfied smirk, she slowly stepped over to him. She lifted up the lamp, getting ready to hit him with it, and he tried to back away from her. She let out a hollow chuckle at his attempts. She was A after all, and she would always get her way eventually.
At that very moment, probably alerted by the huge commotion in the room, three men in Radley uniform stormed into the room to Wren's rescue. It took the three of them to overpower her, despite her being the size of a pixie compared to them.
By that point, Wren fixed a needle out of his pocket, and removed the cap from it. "I'm so sorry, Aria." He said, bending down to give her an antipsychotic injection while the men held her still.
Her psychotic episode ended, and she faded back into the real Aria who immediately dozed off into a deep slumber.
Which Aria Is It Anyway?
Disclaimer; Still no ownership of the Pretty Little Liars franchise. Sad face :(.
Dedication; My dear reviewer, BexSandbox, this chapter is dedicated to you. You gave me the nicest, biggest review for the previous chapter, and therefore this chapter is dedicated to you. You had fierce competition for the spot, though. I had so many great reviews for last chapter, but what tipped the scales was the fact that you hit the nail right in the head in regards to Aria's condition. It was a multiple personality disorder, but the correct term will be revealed in next chapter which you'll hopefully also be there for. You're amazing, keep reviewing :).
Phew. That was the end of chapter 3. It was a big one, huh? Hopefully it was exciting to read :). It was very exciting to write, and things are becoming intenser (not a word, I know) by the second, considering that Aria has just been revealed as 'A'. I hope the drama keeps you reading and reviewing. Speaking of reviews; thank you so, so much for all of your reviews and kind words. They mean the world to me, and they keep me writing. Hopefully I have you sitting on the edge of your seats about what's going to happen. I try at least.
Let's talk this chapter... So now we know what's wrong with Aria, and that she needs to be at Radley – however we still don't know the correct word for it. She has also finally realized the fact that she needs to be there. Does that mean she'll start to take her medication instead of just pretending to? And what will happen to Alison with her, A, and Aria in the same building? A is doing her best to take control, and Aria will try her best to not let that happen, but will she succeed? I will underline the fact that none of them are safe. You'll find out soon enough, but still not.
What will happen in next chapter? Any guesses? Any wishes? I have it planned, start to finish, but one can still guess and wish all one likes ;). I'll start writing the next chapter right away. No, that's a lie. Not right away! It's like Crap O'Clock at night, more precisely 2 A.M where I live as I write this author's note, and I need to get up at 8 for some important stuff that I don't really want to do. That's grown up life for ya. Before I go to bed, though, I'll proofread the chapter to the best of my abilities (as I'm quite tired and might possibly overlook some errors), and post it right away 'cos I'm nice that way :).
So with that I leave you with one last thank you for reading. The gratitude can't be expressed in mere words, and I hope you'll stay with me through the entire journey of this story. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I encourage you to review your thoughts. Nothing would make me happier than your words. So yeah, thanks for reading, and please review :).
Laters,
AK-tutti :)